DIY Playard/baby’s bed

Recently, I tasked myself to build a playard/baby cage for Livy. We’ve been using one we got at a baby fair for quite a while but Livy has just been getting stronger and taller that she’s now able to climb out of it quite easily. She’s not even 18months, so it’s a little worrying for us since she cannot understand dangers and articulate things well enough. I’ve searched all over and all the playards are at a max height of 60cm. I needed something that could really contain my kid.

So I decided to build one out of plc water pipes. Now, I’ve never used this stuff before but I figured…ehhh… what the hell…how hard could it be?? So I headed down to a hardware store and bought some supplies after I did some initial drawings and measurements. I wanted something that was about 80cm wide by 150cm long by 100 cm tall. And I wanted something that had a door because at 100cm high… it’s impossible even for me to climb in and out of it easily.

The materials I got:

7 X 5.8m pvc pipe

60 X T-joints

16 X elbow joints

pipe cutter

pvc glue

2m netting

2 hinges

1 lock

a bunch of washers and screws

The first step was to build the base frame. I figured a gap of 10cm was just enough that Livy can’t get out and her legs can’t get stuck. Learning to use the pipe cutter was easy. After that it was just cutting and gluing. I wanted the bottom and top frames to be glued to give the structure more integrity. The supporting vertical bars weren’t glued in so I could disassemble the playard.

The hinges, lock and netting were easy to install with a power drill/screw. Alternatively, one could just use netting around the whole playard.

The end product was better than the one bought at the store. The advantages:

High enough that baby cannot climb out and fall

Legs and head cannot get stuck because gaps are bigger

baby feels less isolated because the bigger gaps make her feel less separated

costs only about $80, compared to store bought $150

sense of accomplishment!!

The locking system

Netting was installed at the corners because the gaps were bigger. Simply wrap the net and secure with screws and washers.

Thanks For your best informative post..Decent size, very sturdy yet easy to fold and unfold (the mechanism to trigger in order to fold the playpen is a bit hard, and my wife turns the whole thing upside down for easiness). The only drawback is that the outside poles are naked, so it is possible for the babies to bump against them and hurt themselves. That said, the problem can be overcome using pipe wraps (15 mm ø would do the trick if I’m not mistaken).